A batch of fentanyl-laced heroin stamped "Bud Light" that was linked to two overdose deaths in Ocean County last month.Courtesy Ocean County Prosecutor's Office

At least nine people have died or been hospitalized in New Jersey in recent months after overdosing on fentanyl-laced heroin, and law enforcement officials say they fear the potent synthetic chemical, which has been linked to dozens of deaths in the Northeast, is spreading like wildfire throughout the Garden State.

The New Jersey State Police have seen at least seven cases of seizures, overdoses or deaths from fentanyl-laced heroin in the past few weeks, said Capt. Stephen Jones, an agency spokesman. Several of those incidents occurred in Newark, said Paul Loriquet, spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office.

In Ocean County, police found the drug hidden in wax folds bearing the stamp "Bud Light" near the bodies of two people who overdosed in Point Pleasant and Seaside Heights last month, Prosecutor Joseph Coronato said.

Toxicology tests confirmed fentanyl-laced heroin in one of the victims, according to Coronato, who said he is "almost certain" the other death was also fentanyl-related.

In Cape May County, Prosecutor Robert Taylor said investigators linked fentanyl to one overdose death and three hospitalizations last summer, and drug seizures conducted by his office have turned up at least one bag of heroin that was "100 percent" fentanyl.

Fentanyl is a synthetic form of morphine used to treat cancer patients, but is also used to increase the potency of heroin, often with deadly results. It has been linked to 22 deaths in western Pennsylvania last month and 37 deaths in Maryland since September.

Heroin stamped "Bud Ice" was one of three "brands" of fentanyl-laced heroin linked to the deaths in Pennsylvania, authorities there said.

Fentanyl, which is odorless and tasteless, is especially dangerous because there is no way for a user to know if their heroin has been laced, said Carl Kotowski, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New Jersey offices.

He said he fears addicts might actually be more inclined to abuse fentanyl, which is 80 to 100 times more potent than morphine.

"It does improve the high, and that’s the sick thing about being a heroin addict."

"It does improve the high, and that’s the sick thing about being a heroin addict," he said. "Word gets around on the street that this particular batch of heroin is making people overdose and die, but that addict, even though he or she has that information, they will think that’s the good stuff. They’ll be drawn to that, even knowing, ‘Hey, that could kill me.’ "

No one is entirely sure where the fentanyl-laced heroin is coming from, though Coronato believes it was brought into Ocean County from either Trenton or Camden.

Fentanyl overdoses resulted in roughly 1,000 deaths nationwide from April 2005 to March 2007, including 86 in New Jersey, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. After that outbreak, federal investigators tracked the drug to underground labs in Mexico, Kotowski said.

While his office has not seized any fentanyl-laced heroin this year, Kotowski said Wednesday that reports of fentanyl overdoses in Newark and Cape May show the drug has spread throughout the state.

"It’s definitely out there," he said.

The drug-related death last Sunday of actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman was initially thought to be from fentanyl-laced heroin. However, police confirmed yesterday that the chemical had no role in his death, CNN reported.

Heroin abuse has skyrocketed across New Jersey in the past three years, especially among teens and people in their early 20s who were caught up in the prescription pill boom of the late 2000s. When those addicts were unable to afford drugs like oxycodone, which often costs $25 a pill, they switched to the much cheaper heroin, often sold for $5 per dose in Newark and Paterson.

The number of people between the ages 18 to 25 who sought treatment for opiate addiction jumped by 12 percent from 2010 to 2011, records show. There were 368 deaths related to heroin in the state’s 21 counties in 2011, up from 287 in 2010, according to the state medical examiner’s office.